Home again

Well, that was the quickest three weeks I can recall, but alas all good things must end, and we need to return to reality and start paying of the bar tabs from all the hotels we have stayed at (which are lengthy!!). India was amazing, and I have learnt many things which I will try and summarise now.

 

General 

1. The only rule to driving in India is to beep your horn frequently to let lorries, pedestrians and cows know you are there.

2. Indian people like having family photos taken with Westerners - it is not as creepy as it sounds!

3. Indian people are possibly the friendliest people I have ever met! 

4. Cows do not hurry when crossing a *major* roads, they know their sacredness!

5. A dosa is the perfect way to start the day, they are a lovely breakfast pancake!

Delhi

1. Delhi mosquitoes are dirty and love biting Sarah!

2. You can get on a train to Agra without your passport (although probably best not to risk it!)
3. The Spice Route's wine list prices are enough to scare the bejesus out of most folk!

Entrance to the restaurant with most expensive Thai meal I will ever have!

Agra

1. The Taj Mahal is as impressive as people say!

2. It closes on a Friday though, and so the whole area goes into shut down with very little open!
3. Avil is great at taking down the swelling of infected mosquito bites!

I like this - Happy hour is 1 for 1!! :D

Jaipur

1. Elephant skin is not as rough as you would imagine!
2. The Palace of the Winds is not some famous Jaipur Curry House

Winner of the smallest toilet flush handle 2015

Jodhpur
1. When it is hot in Jodhpur it is HOT! bring trousers and shirts made of ice!!
2. If you are going to stay in Jodhpur, then you can't go far wrong with the Raas, a wonderful boutique hotel, with very impressive Fort views.

I love the way Indians name their shops - zero ambiguity!

Udaipur
1. Octopussy is always on TV at some point during the day when you are staying at the Lake Palace.

2. Don't wake Sarah up early in the morning to go on a cycle ride of the old city.

Lady delivering us our curry at the Lake Palace ;)

Goa

1. Egrets are fun, and will eat a surprising amount of different nibbles!

2. A meal at Vernon's bar on the beach is about a tenth of the price of that at Leela.

3. There are an insane amount of Dentists in Goa.

Our Egret stalker.....he was never far away from us

That is about all there is to say for this tour. Sarah and I have had a lovely time, seen seven world heritage sites, stayed at some amazing hotels, and basked in the Indian weather (for the most part!). I hope you have enjoyed following along! Take care until next time.

Sunsets and Kingfishers = Heaven

Our last day in India

Ok, the title is a bit misleading, as we will be in India tomorrow too, as we board the plane in the early afternoon for our long journey home. This statement is also a bit misleading, as I am currently writing about yesterday's events today, while on that very plane, which is heading home! Hope you are all keeping up? (If you are interested, we are currently over Afghanistan - it looks so peaceful down there).

The Afghan-Pakistan border (trust me!)

It is one of the luxuries of Virgin, that I can actually surf the web and keep my finger in the pulse of the international money markets (aka the football scores!) as I cruise home.

Last year it was the world's smallest sandwich, now meet the worlds smallest poppadom

Anyway, we flew out of Goa early yesterday. As it is coming to the end of their holiday season, Goa airport shuts at 12pm for essential maintenance, meaning we were back to early starts again! The flight back to Delhi was fairly uneventful, although we had forgotten what dry heat was like after out time in Goa, and so arriving to 37 degrees that didn't make you drip after 5 minutes was relatively nice! It created a lot of haze though which in turn meant for a bumpy old landing (Sarah is not a big fan of turbulence).

Goodbye to Goa......

Sadly, we are staying in our final hotel, the appropriately named Lemon Tree hotel. It is a hotel near the airport meaning we don't have to face the Delhi traffic in the morning, which can be unpredictable at best, and I say it is appropriately named as all the halls smell of lemons. It has a sister hotel which is adjoined, and I wondered if they followed the same ethos by scenting the halls after the name of the hotel? If so, I am glad we are not staying at the Red Fox!!!

They sell themselves, don't they!? Who needs health warnings!

The room is very comfy and the bed is arguably the most comfortable we have slept on, but the facilities were more school canteen than restaurant, and the service is non-existent, although I wonder if that is partially down to my expectations being raised by the amazing service at the Lake Palace. Therefore, we decided to order room service and dine in, after a couple of failed attempts to eat downstairs. I have to say the food was surprisingly good quality, showing that you can't judge a book by its cover, so we were washed and fed and all that remains is to get a good nights sleep in and prepare for our journey tomorrow (or today).

Our last drink in India, appropriate that it was a Kingfisher!

So, here ends our honeymoon. It has been a lovely journey with my wife and we haven't throttled each other yet (although we came close earlier over the mini chocolate chip cookies!!) so I am taking that as a positive sign! Tomorrow I will summarise my experience of India, after a good nights sleep in me and that will formally end another adventure. I will add some pictures to this post in due course, As all my photos are on a memory card, and I am keeping Sarah (or trying to) entertained by letting her use the laptop to watch her favourite shows - that is true love, right there!!

Goa away!

Being our penultimate day in Goa, we decided to take a break from the serious business of drinking and sunning ourselves and go and partake in a little bit of shopping for trinkets and knick knacks (also known as fridge magnets!). The Leela being in such a secluded spot meant that we needed a taxi ride to get to the main shopping area about 4kms away. The nice thing is though that taxis are so ridiculously affordable, it is not a major issue (a driver hired to drive us there wait for two hours as we mooched around and drove us back cost about 600 rupees, which equates to about £7).

I like the name of this shop. I bet they're good at slashing prices!

So, we were dropped off in the middle of the shops. Obviously, seeing two slightly tanned tourists landing in their midst, the clamour to get us to visit each of their shops was strong!! When they do eventually tempt you in, you need to be mindful that the owners of the shops are eagle-eyed, so if you linger your gaze for one second too long on anything in their shop, suddenly you are being shown everything they have in stock for that particular item! You have been warned! We we are pretty good though at being polite but forceful in refusing to go into every shop along the strip. After all, there are only so many Pashmina scarves and linen shirts your eyes can take in before they all merge into one!! 

Our walk about the town made me realise something unusual about the area. There are dentists in Goa. A lot of dentists. Without too much exaggeration I would say about 1 in 10 shops in Goa that I have seen are dental surgeons. The people here must have the cleanest, healthiest teeth in the whole world!!

You might need to enlarge to see there's three different dentist signs here!

And a bit further up the road, more Dentists!

Anyway, I managed to find my fridge magnet (it cost me 50 rupees which is considerably cheaper than in Rajasthan), and Sarah bought a couple of bits and bobs too. She is good at haggling, almost to the point where you start feeling sorry for the shopkeepers - although a part of me realises that their whole "I am making a loss on this" patois is all part of the charade, as they are not silly enough to sell you anything without making money on it!

Another industry that is prevalent here: Chemists and Druggists

Owing to the humidity, even a couple of hours out shopping saps your energy, so as soon as we got back to the hotel we dipped straight into the pool and ordered a Kingfisher, which helped cool us off! This evening, being our last in Goa, we decided to push the boat out a bit and have a lovely Italian meal at the hotels signature restaurant. It was very nice way to end our Goan holiday, as sadly our time in this lovely part of India has come to an end. Tomorrow we fly back to Delhi for a final night before heading our way back home to England. It seems like only yesterday that we were arriving, and while I know that we have done a lot in three weeks, we have only scratched the surface of what India has to offer.

The sun is setting on our Indian honeymoon....

So, only one more post to go, and then I will try and summarise what I have learnt about our trip to India.

Life's a beach....

Day three in Goa and it's fair to say that we are in full blown chillax mode here. The weather is hot and humid and so we are spending most of the time down by the pool dipping ourselves in the water (which is lukewarm rather than cold) and drinking plenty of Kingfishers (the local beer, not puréed wildlife) and cocktails. It seems I have a penchant for ladies cocktails, as every time. We make an order the waiters *always* put my drink choice in front of Sarah and are genuinely surprised when we say it is for me! What can I say?? I enjoy fruit based cocktails in this sort of weather!! **Update** I may like them, but my digestive system certainly doesn't enjoy the fruit based cocktails, so I am having to stick to beer instead now!!

Our regular breakfast view overlooking the pool......relaxing

View of the pool, with waterfall and caves to explore!

Anyway, permit me to give you a few things I have noticed so far. The food and drinks in the hotel are fairly expensive (Relatively! It is still cheaper than a night in London), and if you are brave enough to venture out of the grounds even a little way, you will find the same drinks for a fraction of the price. I suppose it is hard for the Leela to compete, as they have staff to pay for etc. and I am guessing they have to pay their share of government taxes too.

The beach bars and vendors all have wonderfully English names. We like dining in Vernon's bar which offers good local fare at very reasonable prices and this is next door to Pearl's beach bar, which after a few conversations is more a "Russian" place to go and eat (even the menu has been translated into Russian). As an example of the price differential, we had a lovely meal at Vernon's washed down with a handful of cocktails and beers and it came to a grand total of 1700 rupees (about £20). Compare that to us having two cocktails each at the hotel bar which will set us back a little bit more!!

A selfie at Vernon's - nice place to watch the sunset

 
It is safe to say we love the beach bars, we can sit and watch the sun setting into the Arabian Sea as we get progressively more tipsy. One word of caution though is that the cocktails are *strong*....there is no such thing as measures here, they just pour what they think is a reasonable amount of booze into a glass and shake it up...the result is a sharp intake of breath after your first sip, but it becomes more palatable the more you have (or the more drunk you become).

Cheap beer, generous spirit measures and a beach view.....what's not to like?

The wildlife here is great, it is not shy whatsoever! Sarah is a big fan of the egrets, and has taken to feeding them little tidbits whenever she can, much to the annoyance of the lone gunman patrolling the balcony trying to scare of the birds with his rifle. At least I think that is what he is there for.....he does have a knack of knowing when you are at your most relaxed to then fire off a couple of shots at crows. Needless to say, since we noticed him, I have avoided the "Goan chicken" on the menu ;)

Sarah feeding her little egret.....#come feed the birds, tuppence a bag#

The gun is to scare the birds - or non-paying diners!

Other wildlife we have seen includes a variety of kingfishers outside our room - they usually annoy Sarah in the mornings as they have a loud call, which is like an alarm, and do this every sunrise without fail! There are also Brahminy kites which soar around the grounds all day without having to flap their wings once, they swoop in very low, but I am just rubbish with my camera, so haven't got a decent shot of them yet!. On top of that there are chipmunks, snakes and Sarah's faves, beach dogs. 

Whole families of dogs just seem to laze on the beach around the beach restaurants, knowing that come the end of the night the staff will give them a few scraps. They are very friendly and not too rabid, so you can interact with them without ending up trapped in a beach hut in a Cujo-esque stand-off.

Dotty dog (Sarah's name for her ) - just a little pup and very friendly!

 

They really have the life of Riley here,  and you have to wonders if you would be rescuing them by adopting one.  Here they have warm evenings, water to splash around in, and an abundance of food (as far as I can tell) and loads of people who come over to say hello to them....

That is about all to report for now, we are looking to pop into the town tomorrow in order to pick up a couple of mementos (fridge magnets!) from Goa, and after that we only have one more day here before we start making our way back home (via Delhi!).

Goan Nights

We have arrived in Goa, and immediately it is clear to us that it is like landing in a different country compared to Rajasthan. The people are a lot more informally dressed here (that is not to say scruffy) but it is more casual in comparison to the saris we were used to seeing oop north!  The climate is also completely different, with it being hot and humid, so it doesn't take long to get all clammy. I can foresee many cooling showers will be needed over the next week!

The Leela Hotel is in South Goa; traditionally a quieter part of Goa from the more party/club oriented North. It took a fairly long drive to get here which means we are in the middle of nowhere, but the drive itself was fascinating as we were for the most part driving through a tropical rainforest of mango and coconut trees. The houses here are, understandably, more European in influence (Goa having been settled by the Portuguese), and they *love* colouring their houses in rich and vibrant colours. It is like a who's who of the Dulux colour wheel!! I will take some photos of them when we get out and exploring.

We arrived at the hotel and were greeted with our traditional flower garlands, and given a brief orienteering of the hotel before being taken to our room, which overlooks a lagoon. It is basically a large pond rather than a lagoon to me, but it is full of wildlife and we see kingfishers dipping into the water for some fish and have even seen a snake swimming in the lagoon too! The room itself is impressive; you don't realise how hot and humid it is here until you get to the room, and it is like walking into a fridge - very welcome in this weather!!

Our room for the next week - we can finally unpack our clothes!

Our welcome from the hotel - a bottle of fizz and a(nother) cake!

The lagoon around which our room is situated.

We have a balcony for early morning/evening dining in our room if we want it, and they also have a pillow menu here too, so Sarah is a happy girl! Another nice feature is the bathroom has a Venetian blind which you can retract and thereby watch telly whilst having a bath. 

Morning breakfast served on our balcony - lovely stuff

**Update** After a venture around the place ourselves I can confirm the hotel we are in is lovely! It is very open and spacious, the people are friendly and it is impeccably clean. OK, in fairness we have only really had a brief tour of the bars (our first port of call!!) and the Indian restaurant, where I have discovered I really like tandoori lobster (I tried it first in the Raas in Jodhpur), although I didn't quite appreciate they would give me a lobster that was bigger than Mr Zoidberg!

My tandoori lobster was delicious!

It seems like the day we arrived there was also an Indian wedding on in the grounds as there was some overly loud music being belted out, but we were sitting outside enjoying them doing a set which can only be described as Jive Bunny on acid! It is not easy to fuse The Birdie Song (which I correctly predicted would be played at some point), with "When the Saints go Marching In" and "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball", but somehow they did it. Also, as is traditional with an Indian wedding, they released fireworks which were very pretty, and so that was the backdrop to our first romantic meal in Goa!
 

Udaipur - The Red City

Ok, the title of the post is factually incorrect, Udaipur is actually known as the white city (and the city of lakes or Venice of the East), but after sitting out by the pool reading books for a few hours, Sarah's legs and tummy are redder than Arthur Scargill's political views. In fairness I am feeling a bit of burn too, so we have been slapping on aloe vera gel like it is going out of fashion!

Today, has not been very productive as we are loathe to leave the lake palace, it is so lovely here, we have not availed them of half the services they offered (i.e. they have a resident astrologer who you can get a star chart from) but whilst Sarah was having an afternoon nap I popped out and got my requisite Udaipur fridge magnet!!

However, one thing we did was  have an early morning bike ride through the streets of the old city of Udaipur, which was very random, but a lovely way to get a feel for how people travel in India. The bikes were traditional Indian bikes, and the brakes on my one were a bit dodgy, but it was fine to pootle about stopping off at various places as the guide explained to us the way of life in Udaipur while dippng his hands into every shopkeepers stock and letting us taste, gratis, the various Indian delicacies they were trying to sell!!

Market in Udaipur, our guide kept grabbing foods for us to taste

The roads are narrow, but it was cool at that time of the morning and, because shops didn't open until about 11am, it was relatively quiet at that time of the morning (apart from Sarah moaning that i had woken her up as silly o'clock to go on this tour!!). It only took an hour and so we were home in time for breakfast, which we had out by the water garden. It is a feature of this hotel that you can tell then where you want your meals and they will set up a table and chairs and make it happen for you!

Sarah waiting for breakfast at the Lake Palace!

After breakfast we went and sat by the pool as I mentioned, before packing up our stuff ready for the early start tomorrow (up at 4am!). So, after 10 days of touring, we are finally leaving Rajasthan and heading to our final destination in Goa, where the pace of life (and this blog) will slow down, as there is not much to do there, apart from relax!

The Maharana's palace, as seen from our room!

But before that we sat and watched a traditional Rajasthani performance that the palace puts on every evening. It is clearly popular with the guests as the staff all set up lots of extra chairs to cope with the demand for seating. Sarah and I inadvertently stumbled upon this because we were at the bar when the performance was scheduled to begin, and we were captivated by the lady dancer.

Not only could she dance, but she could do it while carrying a load of pots on her head and then to make things a bit more of a challenge, she decided to stand on the rims of a couple of whiskey glasses (how on earth she found out she could do that will remain a mystery!) and then if that was not enough she decided to stand a couple of knife edges too!!

The woman who delivers the curry to your table.....;)

In all, I am sad to leave the Lake Palace, this place is the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed at, and that is purely down to the impeccable service! But now we are making our way down to Goa, via Mumbai. The Leela has a lot to live up tomorrow.

Jain Temple and the road to Udaipur

A bit of a lay in today meant that we caught up on some well needed sleep, even if it meant that we didn't get to see the village of Narlai as planned. The weather is a balmy 38 degrees here, made deceptively cooler by the air conditioning in the car.

On the way, we stopped off at a Jain temple in Ranakpur, which was a brilliant example of Jainist temple architecture, and had over 1000 columns, all intricately detailed on it. Never one to pass up this sort of detour, I eagerly accepted the offer of being driven here to see it, and I was not disappointed. It seems to be a tourist mecca though, as it was one of the busiest places we have visited whilst touring around Rajasthan, and for a change it was busier with foreign tourists than Indian nationals (unlike the forts, which was the other way around).  Entry to the temple means you have to adhere to strict codes of acceptability, like wearing trousers rather than shorts, taking your shoes off etc., and Sarah unfortunately couldn't enter the temple, which was a shame, but I think she was secretly happy with not having to traipse around another temple!

Jain Temple at Ranakpur - wonderful architecture, that reminded me of Cambodia

Once I got inside, I was soon taken to one side by a monk who "could feel my spiritual energy", which the cynical side of me took to mean he thought I might give him some money, and so he performed a chakra chant on me, giving me good health and strength (I think) - he was left slightly disappointed though when he asked me for a donation though, as all my money was in my leather wallet, and owing to no leather products being allowed in the temple, I had left all my cash in the car!! Still, his chant might well have worked, as I am feeling fine and dandy today, with no signs of the unpleasantness of 24 hours ago! So, I hereby promise to pop a few rupees into the next Jain temple I visit.

There were lots of columns at this temple, and idols too (but we werent allowed to photograph those)

After that visit we made our way to Udaipur. It is a smaller city than Jaipur (and even Jodhpur) so seems a lot more relaxed. However nothing could quite prepare you for entering the Lake Palace. To get here you have to go through the Maharana's (I think that is a step up from a Maharaja in terms of royalty) palace, which the mere mortals are not allowed past, and on his road there is no tuk-tuk beeping allowed, so it is a idyll of quiet and calm. our car drove us up to the jetty, as in order to get to our hotel, we have to use a boat taxi (it is a free 24 hour service provided by the hotel for its guests).

The Lake Palace - I was slightly disappointed we didn't approach it in a hollowed out crocodile a la Bond!

The Lake palace itself is unlike any hotel I have stayed in, it is not often you get to a hotel and your entrance to it they arrange for people to rain rose petals down on you from the roof! We then got a traditional greeting where they mark your head with a bindi, to bring you health and happiness, before giving us an orienteering session about the hotel.

Everything about it says plush. We have our own butler, who will help us out with anything we might want or need at the hotel (we are not that precious, so I am guessing she will have an easy time of it). We have a lake view room, which is lovely but they have upgraded us to have a lake view room overlooking the palace, which is the side you want to be at!! Also outside our front door, is the water garden, which is used in the film Octopussy (I may have mentioned that this palace was in that film before ;) ).

Our room! this is the way to live!! :D

The Water garden is outside our front door. Was used as Octopussy's swimming pool in the film!

Upon entry to the room, there were some people hastily arranging some pretty flower petal patterns on the floor (to welcome us) and also they presented us with a lovely cake and an umbrella for Sarah.  The flower petal business is the thing to be in in this country, judging by the amount of petals the Lake Palace get through!!

Beautiful petal arrangement on our floor to welcome us!!

Wonderful cake depicting scene from a Hindu love story.

Me doing the gentlemanly thing and holding the umbrella over Sarah.....

Nothing is too much trouble for the staff here, we can have food when we want and where we want it, drinks anywhere we like, they will be delivered to us. In all it is very relaxing here!!

A coincidence? Octopussy was on the telly when we arrived!!

We even get a menu for our duvet and pillows!